Moka Only - Summer 2002 Vol. 2
Well this was a surprise. Moka has once again dug into his vast unreleased vaults and is poised to send us all back twenty years to the summer of 2002 with a two volume smorgasbord of pure new millennium flavor. I was fortunate to be present for some of his mixing of this two part project and witnessed Moka transferring audio sessions from adat tapes to his digital multitrack and then scrupulously tweaking and finalizing these treats until they sounded as if they were recorded just yesterday as well as excavating gemstones and jewels from old reference mix cassette tapes. What a time warp! These tracks ooze with innocent optimism and easy vibes as well as a touch of salacious playfulness thatâs sorely missing from most of the rapmosphere in this day and age. The tracks from summer 2002 volume one and two are peppered with chordal zest and that certain magic that only Moka can conjure and poot forth. Some of standouts of volume one include â hello everybody â which feels like such a warm welcome back to this halcyon period in his body of work and the snaps and claps of âdonât eff aroundâ exhibit a carefree playfulness that easily sets up the mood for him to intro his rap with such simple, fun nonsense as âletâs get this rappin happeninâ, clickinâ and snappeninâ, snap it in half then laugh. Haha, Iâm bout to take a bath. On the subject of content, fuck you, you crabâ. Yes.. as I stated, only Moka. (Insert laugh-tears emoji here). But this is what weâve come to love and demand from him, nowadays more than ever. We hope he can return to this sort of happy playfulness of his early 2000s era on future releases. Until then we should be grateful to be privy to this particular unearthing. When I asked Moka why he waited twenty years to release this double set he simply shrugged and said âthey wasnât readyâ. I didnât press the issue any more than that. I wondered afterwards though if he meant that the tracks werenât ready(though Moka has not altered or added to the recordings in any way) or was it US that werenât ready for this material, in which case seems a little cocksure to blurt out but Moka has never seemed to be the type to filter himself much so we will just leave it to our imaginations. Thatâs fine . On volume one the final few tracks seem to veer into more introspective fare, some of which feels bittersweetly heart-wrenching. And THAT seems to be a foreshadowing of his work from the 2010s to current day. He states in the track âon my wayâ âwhat I do? Man, I drift on by and itâs gone by and homies get different agendas⌠itâs alright . I make my little sway to the mile, lay on a road with the moon and talk wildâ. This sounds like the âlonesome sentinelâ character of his that weâve grown accustomed to over the past few years and as he says âitâs alrightâ. volume two takes more of a reverse format starting introspective with tracks like âDo with myselfâ and âlove comes throo-og versionâ and the mood lightens considerably toward the conclusion with songs like âsexual situationsâ and âall I ever think ofâ where we hear lines like âyou remind me (of) when I met my ex, 1992 bumpin DasEfx, wasnât about sex but this is,miss so if you with it let it flow and if not then ima have to let it goâ. All song topics,concepts and vibes aside much of Volume two has a dirtier sonic quality to in, due in part to several of the tracks being procured from old cassette tape mixes rather than strictly new ADAT transfer mixes. In short I truly feel weâve got a double whammy of a time capsule hit on our hands that we should all be so attentive to and raise it up from these underground depths so a new generation of ears can appreciate the love injected into these curations, as it should be. ââ Shuggie Footsmith, Yakima Jazz Gazette.